Blog

Originally posted on Completion By Design's blog on September 7, 2016.
The completion agenda has been effective in shifting the national conversation on postsecondary attainment from access to completion, as reflected in the measurable completion goals set to be achieved by Lumina Foundation, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Obama Administration, and numerous states. This is tremendous progress, but for low-income Americans who seek postsecondary credentials to secure employment and advance in our economy, it is not enough to simply complete.
Several recent studies from the...

This blog was authored by JFF's former CEO Marlene B. Seltzer.
Like so many people across the country, I am saddened and enraged by the recent brutal violence and mass murders that have left our nation torn and deeply divided along race and class lines. From Orlando, Baton Rouge, and the Minneapolis area, to Dallas and Fort Myers, acts of violence, motivated by fear and hatred raise the question: How can the greatest democracy in the world possibly tolerate such injustice and what can we do, individually and collectively, to change the course of what will be a very ugly chapter in our...

Originally posted on The Intersection, The Hunt Institute Blog, on April 12, 2016.
Most high school graduates (66 percent) go to college right after high school. But for all the efforts schools are making nationally to improve the college readiness of their graduates—tougher state standards, curricula, and assessments—many young people still struggle once they start college.
Just over half of students entering two-year colleges, and one in five entering four-year colleges, start in remedial courses. The figures are even higher for low-income students. Of these, too few finish the remedial...

Originally posted in WorkforceGPS on July 19, 2016.
When you’re focused on the day-to-day of grant implementation it can be difficult to hear what the buzz on the street is about TAACCCT.
So hear this!
The field is talking, your work is being recognized, and TAACCCT is out there at non-TAACCCT events. As an example, at Jobs for the Future’s (JFF) recent Voices for Opportunity and Economic Mobility Summit, TAACCCT had a strong presence throughout various plenaries and breakout session.
The summit brought together close to 650 participants that included state and federal policymakers,...

Critical Findings of the Accelerating Opportunity Initiative
Jobs for the Future’s Accelerating Opportunity (AO) initiative was launched over four years ago, with the goal of helping the nation’s large numbers of adults with low basic skills earn higher-wage jobs faster by combining the Adult Basic Education (ABE) and career and technical training they need into one integrated program.
The numbers speak for themselves: in the first three years of the initiative, 8,287 students enrolled in AO pathways across 54 colleges in four of our participating states: Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, and...